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WWE prepares you for everything in entertainment. It's the truth. You need a host? Get a WWE Superstar. You need someone for an action movie, a comedy movie, a drama movie, you get a WWE Superstar. Because these guys are the most well-versed, well-trained, and hardest working guys out there.
When I was with WWE before, I was a big guy throwing people around - power moves. Then after that, when I left WWE, I was like, 'I still enjoy professional wrestling,' but some of the smaller guys look up at me and say, 'I don't wanna wrestle him. I don't wanna get thrown around by that guy.'
There were times that we'd be in the locker room there before everyone else, and a guy would walk in, say, 'Is this the Kliq locker room?' So we'd draw with a sharpie on the back of a program and write 'Kliq locker room'. I can promise you that none of those signs were ever on WWE letterhead.
The cool thing about WWE is it's like entertainment boot camp. You're performing in front of a live audience, a different audience every night. You're doing promos in the ring. You're doing talking segments in the back. You're wrestling. You're performing. It's everything all rolled into one.
The problem with Deep South to me is that there was a group that were tight with the boss, and they would always go out and drink and have barbeques. Then, when WWE would say, 'Who should we look at?' Bill Demott would say, 'Oh, look at this guy and this guy.' Of course those were his buddies.
It's one thing to put out the opportunity, but it's another to take it and run with it. People say to me, 'Thank you for the opportunity,' and I always respond with, 'Thank you for taking it.' We need to be able to see where, how, these changes can grow. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was WWE.
A lot of people who've been athletes have come here and not been able to just pick it up right away. I hate using this example, and I love her to death, but Eva Marie. She was an amazing soccer player and athlete, but coming to WWE and getting in the ring was a whole different ball game for her.
I'm out here for opportunity and championship and a belt that spells my name, but on a bigger stage, my bigger goal, my mindset is to completely eliminate any doubt in some of the minds that, 'Hey I don't want to take my dream to WWE. Where I'm from, what I believe in, it could cause any trouble.'
When I first got to WWE, the head of talent relations was John Laurinaitis, who is now my father-in-law, and the first thing I thought when I saw everything that he had to do is, I thought, 'I would never, in a million years, ever want that job. You could not pay me enough money to have that job.'
To know that a kid could come up to me in 20 or 30 years and say, 'Hey, here's a picture of us. I met you at a meet-and-greet, and I idolized you as a child. I'm a WWE Superstar, too, because you inspired me.' That's crazy to think, but it could happen. I made it, so if I can make it, anybody can.
I think Sting would be denying his fans a great moment if Sting did not step into WWE competition at least once. I have always been a huge admirer of what Sting brings to the table and his relationship with his audience, and I would be dramatically disappointed if Sting does not wrestle a WWE match.
I was thinking, with the TV exposure I had with WWE - and it's kind of hard to explain to people sometimes how many countless hours you are on television when you've been on the road with WWE - I was thinking that was going to open doors, get me auditions, and get me into a lot of high profile roles.
It's been a long road for me coming from NXT. I've been with NXT for almost four years, and just getting to WWE, and now being able to travel with them, I kind of have to make new friends and get hotel rooms and travel in different cities every single night. It's very different, but it's so much fun.
I was that 16-year-old who loved WWE, and I wanted to be a pro wrestler, but I didn't understand why I had to be the bad guy. I wanted to be like Jeff Hardy - I wanted to be like Rey Mysterio - but I was told I had to be the guy who screamed terrible things about America and attack people from behind.
To me, I think I've always carried that type of WWE style with me throughout my career, even before I got here, so the transition hasn't been that difficult. I've been enjoying the transition, to be honest with you, because in my opinion, this business evolves all the time, and it changes all the time.
Professional wrestling... is no different than a Broadway play except that in a Broadway play, actors are using dialogue to tell a story and establish their characters, while in WWE, they're using a physical dialogue to tell their story and build their characters. That's a very unique art; it really is.
ECW was the most fun for me artistically. And then, WWE, it was also very fun, but that was part of it. It was also a very stressful, monotonous schedule. There was a lot of politics, adjusting to that, and I am not a politician, and I don't play those games. So that was very frustrating for me as well.
At my age, I'm not trying to score cool points. I'm just excited when I can speak to younger members of our audience in the WWE. I just get to be a superhero to kids, but I'm not trying to be on the cutting edge of style or anything like that. Once you reach that point of deprivation, you don't mind it.
Straight out of Blackpool, I'm William Regal. My rhymes so intense, they shouldn't be legal. My style is refined, not crude and crass. I'll keep you grounded, like volcanic ash. I'll take you down, rung by rung. I'm just like British Parliment; I'm completely hung. Straight-up gangsta trippin'. Yes, boy!
I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t use drugs. That may be boring for some people, but that’s just me. That’s how I live my life. That stuff never appealed to me and I never understood getting so messed up that you can’t even walk home or remember the previous night. I choose to live my life without it.
I just play it safe when it comes to television because it is WWE's intellectual property. But it is literally my legal name, like on my ID. My name hasn't been Cody Runnels since I was 17. But it's theirs. At no point would I ever want to go into a courtroom with a company I have love and admiration for.
When fans think WWE, I don't want them to think Hulk Hogan or The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin or John Cena. I want them to think of The Miz. I want to be on every show. When we need a guy to do Conan or Jimmy Kimmel, I want them to call me. I wanna be on the cover of all the video games. I want it all.
For a long time when I was working to get a job and in OVW to create an image to get hired by WWE, they kept saying, 'we're looking for the next Trish Stratus. We want that look - that beautiful, feminine fitness model that kicks butt, and you just don't fit the mold.' That was holding me back for so long.
I've been in WWE for 22 years and reached a point in my career where, within the locker room, I'm one of the people that guys come to if something needs to be discussed. I'm also one of the people that the WWE executives, if there is a problem in the locker room, I'm one people that is consulted about that.
Oftentimes, WWE lives in its own bubble because it is forever moving. Oftentimes, a motion picture will live in its own bubble because they have a certain amount of time to get everything done. It's just, when you connect the two and get everything straightened out, truly, it may take a little elbow grease.
We love to be athletic, but at the same time, we love to entertain. So my sister was actually looking to play pro soccer in Italy, and I convinced her. I said, 'Please, there's this thing called WWE Diva Search. I really want to go. I think we can do this.' And sure enough, they gave my sister and me a shot.
Pro wrestling was there, and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers, but unfortunately, at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy - you know, the company didnt want to lose another top performer.
Pro wrestling was there, and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers, but unfortunately, at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy - you know, the company didn't want to lose another top performer.
The key to WWE's success and longevity is that they are, as modern and as relevant as the company may be in modern social media and platforms and contemporary distribution, the company is still built around old-school promotion. Who are these two fighters? Why are they wrestling? And why should I pay to see it?
I'm Straight Edge for me, so what everyone else is doing, it doesn't matter. I've never been pressured to drink or smoke or anything by any of the boys, and if anything, a lot of them like me because I'm always the designated driver. I'm the one who makes sure everyone gets home alright and I'm happy doing that.
Who cares if the locker room would embrace Conor McGregor. If Conor McGregor can be a revenue driver for WWE, if he can sell network subscriptions, or if he can sell thousands and tens of thousands of tickets, if he can move millions of T-shirts, who cares if anybody in the locker room likes it or doesn't like it.
Actually, a person asked me if I was ever going to come back to WWE. I told them that if I came back, it probably wouldn't be as WWE Superstar, because the young guys are really what it's all about. Bringing me back as an announcer is a great position for me to actually go out and make the young guys bigger stars.
We had a show called NXT, and Daniel Bryan was my rookie, and I was his pro. And the object was for the pros teach the rookies what it's like to be a WWE Superstar. As soon as that hit the Internet, the Internet thought it was absurd: 'How dare WWE put Daniel Bryan as Miz's rookie? Daniel Bryan should be the pro.'
The run that I had - which really was, like, four months in the WWE - it wasn't great. But my opening day was great. My opening day was humongous. And then WrestleMania was pretty much my closing card. I did one 'Raw' after that, but that WrestleMania 18 match that I had with Christian, that was a hell of a match.
I've got nothing but love for Justin Roberts, nothing but great things to say about him. It's a cliched thing to say you wish him well in his future endeavours, but I really do. I hope the best for him. He was involved in a lot of huge main events over the years. One thing about Justin was that he really loved WWE.
There was originally no plan in place for me to become WWE champion. It felt like I became the No. 1 contender out of nowhere. I call what I did forcing the results. I wasn't happy with my position. I was putting in the work, but I wasn't getting the results. I was going to force the result no matter what the cost.
The only thing I took advantage of at Extreme Rules was an opportunity to cash in my Money in the Bank contract, which I did successfully, well within the rules. You know, Jeff knows this, you know this, the fans know this: nowhere on that contract does it say, under any circumstances, 'Do not cash in on Jeff Hardy.'
Honestly, I think we in the WWE are very underrated as performers. What we do would be very difficult for even an experienced actor. To go out and sometimes have 15 minutes of verbiage, sometimes have to ad-lib and then, of course, have other variables such as the interaction with the audience, it can be challenging.
The great thing about WWE is the fact they are branching out and doing more brands. Having this just creates more opportunities for everybody, and I just want them all to get a chance. Especially in England. I know we have a lot of British superstars, but it's still a lot harder for Brits to come over here in America.
A lot of people know about the power of the WWE brand. We're in 145 countries in 30 different languages. We reach about 650 million households worldwide on a global weekly basis. But what they don't know about WWE is that we use all of that power to give back to the community through events like Hurricane Sandy Relief.
In ECW, the fans would warm me up. I'd walk around the ring and slap hands with everyone and get ready for the match. I'd feed off that energy, I would use that to create positive energy. In WWE, it's different. It's a timed show; everything is timed. We know - when we get to the ring, we know when there's a commercial.
We wanted to do it right. There is an expectation and WWE has a reputation to deliver the best show we possibly can when we perform in a new part of the world. We wanted to deliver Abu Dhabi with the best product we could. Also it's very difficult to make the travel work as we are constantly touring throughout the year.
I was having a lot of issues with just a lot of social media trolls: people would try to make fun of my size and my weight to the WWE and what not. I just decided to go out there and post a picture of me in a bathing suit. I said, 'You know what? This is my body. I'm going to embrace it, and I'm going to show the world.'
Really, I didn't even want to go to WWE in 2001. I knew that it wasn't my favorite style, my favorite showcasing of my abilities, but it was definitely the best business move. At the time, there was nowhere else to go anyway - ECW was gone, WCW was gone. So, when I first came in, I was seriously frustrated trying to adapt.
Guys like Jack Lanza, Pat Patterson, Bruce Pritchard, Tom Pritchard - those guys all helped me get a tryout. And I'd never been in the ring, so they went on a lot of faith and signed me and thought that they could help mold me into a WWE superstar. And now I'm glad they did, because that was a big turning point in my life.
I remember, even when I started with WWE, it was a different ball game. There were all these restrictions and things we couldn't do, and now, it's really empowering to know we can do anything that we want and what the guys can do. It gives women the opportunity to show why we're more than divas and why we're WWE superstars.
What I do for Make-A-Wish is I make children and families that are up against some pretty tough circumstances, I let them come into our WWE universe, and I do my best to make them feel good. I've seen a lot of kids and a lot of families happy, and I think people are going to watch 'American Grit' and have emotional moments.
My mom was like, 'What did I do as a mom for you to want to become a wrestler?' They just didn't understand, and it's really hard to explain what made me love wrestling so much. There's something about it that made me fall in love, and ever since I laid my eyes on it, I knew I wanted to be a professional wrestler in the WWE.
It wasn't until 2002 when I returned to WWE and until I had physically been out there - it was during the match when Kevin Nash blew his quad. That next morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading my Bible and the Book of Joshua, and this feeling came over me that I was back here for a reason. God built me to be a wrestler.
Negative comments in terms of body image are the hardest thing the women probably struggle with. But I think the best thing that we can do as WWE superstars is taking that negativity and using it in a positive way, because there are so many young kids on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to not send the message of hate on to.